


Nightmares

by Ayame_no_kimi



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Nightmares, One-Shot, but it starts kinda funny, i don't wanna say established relationship, lots and lots of angst, luke isn't a saint, more like established enemies with benefits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 15:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7227616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayame_no_kimi/pseuds/Ayame_no_kimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short scene just before the beginnig of TFA. Hux is being an arsehole (duh), Kylo Ren has nightmares, Hux has to deal with it (poor Hux).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmares

“What do you mean, map to Skywalker? Are you trying to tell me the bloke who ran away never to be found left behind a map?” _Crash_. Hux turns his head and gives the young operator who just dropped a whole pile of droid ports an icy glare. The man, bright-red in his face, kneels down and gathers up the ports under a dozen muttered ‘terribly sorry’s.

“We can’t tell for sure,” Kylo Ren says. “But it seems that’s what Ro-Kiintor was talking about before the Resistance got to him.”

Hux shakes his head as the operator makes off. “Who runs away and then leaves behind a fucking map? And not even with his sister, which would make sense, but with some stranger sitting around on a planet nobody gives a fuck about that isn’t protected by anything?”

“Skywalker, obviously,” Ren, who can be strangely literal at times, replies.

Hux sighs in frustration. “I suppose you’re here to tell me you want to take away my stormtroopers to follow that lead?”

“I don’t want to take them away. I want you to deploy them with me.”

“Same difference. Fine. You can take the FN unit. They need the experience, anyway.”

“The FN – are you kidding me? The sanitation guys? They haven’t even been in a fight yet!”

“So what? They are still stormtroopers, all trained and combat-ready. And like I said, they need the experience.”

Ren shakes his masked head. “You’re just doing this to piss me off. Give me one of the proper units.”

“I am not doing this to piss you off, that would be petty. I need the rest of the units for... important stuff on the... Borderlands.”

Ren takes a step towards Hux and stares down at him from his towering height. At least that is what Hux thinks he does. Who can tell with that mask, really?

“You can’t even be bothered to come up with a proper excuse,” Ren growls. “Fine. I will take the sanitation unit. The Force knows I, unlike you, will be able to handle them. Oh, and I am taking Phasma, too.” He strides off, robe billowing around his feet.

“What? No! You’re not taking Phasma!” Hux calls after Ren. “You can’t take her, I need her for important stuff in the... Border... Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

 

* * *

 

 

“You could just give me the ST unit, you know,” Ren says later in Hux’s room. He slowly cards his hands through his hair, eyes fixed on the data monitor on the desk. “They work well with me.”

Hux carefully stows his overcoat in the closet, before he turns around, picks up the shift clock from the desk and thrusts it in Ren’s face. “Work shift’s over. Remember the rule? No work talk during private time.”

“You don't understand how important this is. For the first time in years we have a proper lead on Skywalker and you stick me with the sanitation guys.”

Hux groans. It is this level of obsession that fuels all his irritation and resentment towards Ren. It is also what makes him want to push Ren onto the bed and have his way with him until Ren can’t speak anymore. His voice sounds much better when reduced to a whimper, anyway. “Stop calling them sanitation guys. At least call them sanitation stormtroopers.” Whimpering, and moaning Hux’s name in that breathless way that makes it really hard to concentrate on anything else. “Besides, you’re getting Phasma. She is as good as the entire ST unit. Now shut your mouth and come here.”

“I can’t stay the night,” Ren says as he allows Hux to drag him down into the sheets.

“Sure. Tell yourself that. Let’s see whether you’ll be able to get out of this bed, let alone leave the room, once I’m done with you.”

 

* * *

 

 

Ren stays the night.

 

* * *

 

 

Hux is torn out of his sleep by a loud _thud!_ and a sudden dull pain in his right shoulder and hip. He grasps around in confusion and touches hard floor. The bed is gone, as are the pillows and the blanket. All that is left is the cold of the empty room. He stares around blindly while his sleep-ridden brain tries to connect his senses with his ability to think. Starlight comes streaming in through the high window and illuminates the room in an eerie silver glow. As he turns around it dawns on him that the bed has, in fact, not vanished into thin air, but rather that he has fallen out of it. Or, to be more precise, been pushed out.

He sits up and switches on the bedside lamp. It is not hard to determine what was responsible for his rude awakening. The lamp lights up with a weak flicker. It fights against the same invisible Force that washes over Hux's skin in powerful pulses. The waves of pressure make the air hiss and the sleeping data system hum.

Kylo Ren is lying in bed on his back, face and body perfectly still, except for a telling little twitch around his eyes. His breath is coming quick and heavy. Around him the pressure is almost unbearably strong.

Hux reaches out his hand to shake Ren’s shoulder.

“You’re dreaming, wake up.”

Ren doesn’t stir. It happens almost every night, though usually not so bad that Hux awakes on the floor.

“Seriously, Ren, you’re messing up my room. And you threw me out of my own bed. Wake up or I’ll shoot you in the leg.”

He continues to shake the strangely heavy body until Ren’s eyes snap open. They glisten brightly in the weak light of the lamp that still flickers occasionally. The pressure relents, but it still pulsates around Hux’s fingers.

Ren doesn’t turn to Hux. He doesn’t move at all. He merely lies there, eyes fixed to the ceiling while two wet trails make their way across his cheeks.

“Don’t make me,” he finally whispers. “I’m sorry I can’t... I never asked you to put me in the middle of this.”

“Who?” Hux asks. He strokes a thumb across Ren’s cheek and licks off the salt. “Who put you in the middle?”

Ren blinks twice. He lifts both hands to his face and covers his eyes. His shoulders shake. “You can’t make me fight your fights anymore. I chose my side long ago and it wasn’t yours. I’m sorry I...”

Hux brushes a few black curls from Ren’s temple. They cling to his skin, wet from sweat. Ren’s breath is coming in ragged gasps now, he chokes them in and retches them out. “Are you talking about Snoke, pet?”

Ren shakes his head. “Not Snoke, not him... Hux, I...” He presses out a few sobs, then sucks in a few deep breaths. At least he seems to know where he is now. “Don’t ask... it wasn’t supposed to be like this. If only she had never asked me to go...”

Suddenly Ren sits up. He drops his hands onto the sheets and runs them across the fabric in wild patterns. “They all think they’re doing it for the right reasons... but they never asked me...!”

Hux rests his eyes on Ren’s. They don’t look at anything, don’t seem to see anything. The shine within is almost gone, swallowed by darkness and terror. “Who are you talking about, pet? Look at me.” He lays a hand on Ren’s chin and nudges his head upwards. “Come on, talk to me.”

Slowly Ren looks up. Then he shuts his eyes. “Don’t ask. They never did. They wanted me to fight this fight, until one side won. But me... I was never going to win. I have been consigned to defeat long before this fight even began. I am a soldier, Hux. I was never a leader, never meant to stand out over the masses. I was the first front. Only that it didn’t come as he expected. I didn’t choose his side. I did… I am not proud of what I did… but it was necessary… in the long run it was all necessary. Why can’t he let me go?”

“Who won’t let you go?” Hux takes Ren’s hands into his own and squeezes them to stop them from trembling. Ren keeps shaking his head. The black curls have fallen back into his face. They hide his eyes and cover up the tears.

“Don’t ask, Hux, please… nobody can know. I never wanted to choose, but I did anyway and now I have to live with it… and I wait for the pain to stop and sometimes I think it has and I can breathe again… and then I wake up and I think it was just a dream, but I am still caught in it, the nightmares don’t end… and I keep thinking, they will end once I kill him, once he is dead. But what if they don’t?”

Hux doesn’t ask. He pulls Ren closer. Draws up the blanket because he knows how easily Ren freezes. Ren buries his face in Hux’s neck. Black curls spill over Hux’s shoulders.

“Even if they don’t end,” he mutters into Kylo Ren’s ear, “I will still be here when you wake up.”

The starlight pales against the rising sun. Hux switches off the lamp that burns steadily now. At some point the pressure waves have died down into soft whispers along Hux’s skin. The sun rises early on the Starkiller. They still have a few hours of sleep before they need to wake up.

Hux pulls Ren back down into the sheets. The sobs have ceased, as have the incoherent mumbles. Hux continues stroking Ren’s hair and neck, his fingers trailing down Ren’s back. Finally Ren’s breathing becomes slow and steady again.

Hux is already drifting back into sleep when he hears Ren whisper something.

“Hmm?”

“…my uncle,” Ren whispers. “The one who trained me. Luke Skywalker is my uncle.”

Hux strokes Ren’s hair and says nothing.


End file.
